


Experimentation

by Mx Magic Fluffenmew (PerpetuallyDone)



Series: Android Lil Bulb [3]
Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)
Genre: Android Lil Bulb, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-15
Updated: 2019-10-15
Packaged: 2020-12-31 01:36:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21036779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PerpetuallyDone/pseuds/Mx%20Magic%20Fluffenmew
Summary: Fenton has a few concerns, and Gyro not only explains, but shows as well.  (Android Lil Bulb AU)





	Experimentation

“Does he ever leave the lab?”

Gyro’s fingers halted their typing. Shooting Fenton a half-lidded look, he heaved a sigh. "Why do you keep saying that?“

Fenton quirked a brow. "What do you mean?”

Lowering his tablet, Gyro bit back a second sigh. His gaze didn’t waver. "You keep calling Lil Bulb ‘he’.“

Looking away, Fenton awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. "Oh. My apologies, Doctor Gearloose. I guess I just assumed now that Lil Bulb is…”

He trailed off for a moment as he looked back to Gyro, dropping his hand back to his side.

Still giving him that same annoyed look, Gyro raised a brow. His stance straightened. "Now that it’s _what_?“

"Well… Not a robot. I assumed we wouldn’t still be calling it, well… It.”

With a roll of his eyes, Gyro lifted his tablet back up. "That’s Lil Bulb’s preference, and I support it completely.“

"As for your _other _question,” He added on sharply before Fenton could get another word in edgewise. "No. Lil Bulb has no need to leave the lab, so it doesn’t. We do perfectly fine here.“

Fenton’s brow pinched. "You don’t even bring it to the park or anything like that on your way home from work?” He questioned with a small frown.

Sighing again, Gyro gave up on his notes for the moment. Instead of answering right away, he tapped a few more buttons to save and lock his tablet. Once it was stowed away in his vest, he turned his attention to Fenton. "No. There is no 'on our way home’,“ he said, making literal quotes with his fingers. "Because we don’t leave. I have my own apartment right here in the lab.”

Jerking his head back a bit, Fenton’s eyes widened. "W-wait, really?? Huh… I always figured you were a workaholic,“ he mused, scratching the back of his head.

Turning away from Fenton, Gyro beckoned for him to follow. "Inventing and science is both my job and my hobby. I have everything I need right here, and Mister McDuck appreciates that I’m always on call,” he explained as he lead the way deeper into the lab.

“And considering I live where I work, I don’t have to pay ludicrous prices for an apartment, or risk burglary in dirt cheap areas. Everything I make and myself stays in one of the safest places in all of Duckburg.” Coming to a stop before a rather plain door with a keypad whose paint long since worn off, Gyro paused to spare Fenton another look. Less annoyed, and more so pleased. "The Money Bin, and more importantly Gearloose Labs. It’s literally _impossible _for someone to break in here!“

Again, he paused, eyeing Fenton up and down. ”…Unless they were let in, of course.“ Ignoring the offended look on the duck’s face, Gyro punched in the code to his apartment. 

Though when the door slid open, Fenton wasn’t sure he would have called it an apartment. He saw studios bigger than where Gyro lived. A twin sized bed that looked like it was never made sat pushed into one of the corners. In the opposite corner, a dated TV sat on a coffee table, a pile of empty take-out boxes and paper plates stacked beside it. The microwave and well-loved coffee machine sat on an end table beside that. Sat in front of the TV, a pillow and blanket turned the worn-out loveseat into a makeshift bed. What he could only assume was the bathroom took up about a fourth of the room.

"You and Lil Bulb… Both live in here?” Fenton took a step into the room, another small frown settled on his bill. Even standing there, the 'apartment’ felt so… Tiny.

Gyro knew that look, but he wasn’t about to acknowledge it. Instead, he folded his arms over his chest from his spot by the door. "Of course we do. Where else would it stay? In the main lab itself??“

"Where does it sleep?” 

Gyro rolled his eyes with a huff of a sigh. "Lil Bulb doesn’t _sleep_,“ he began, already waving both hands about as he spoke. 

"It has a sleep _mode _that it can use when _charging_, but it doesn’t have to. When it does charge, it does so on the couch.” He pointed to the loveseat with both hands.

“However, whenever I make it into my own bed for my required three hours of sleep, it has been known to charge beside me.” He then gestured to the bed.

Fenton opened his mouth, though no words came out at first. Shaking his head firmly, he turned around to face Gyro, brows raised. "Required _three _hours?? Doctor Gearloose, a person needs-“

"Buh, buh, buh! _Save it._” Gyro immediately interrupted, waving both hands back and forth. "I’m doing just fine as I am. I don’t need to hear you lecture me as well.“

"Fine. Then what about Lil Bulb?” Fenton questioned, folding his arms over his chest.

Gyro did the same. "What about Lil Bulb?“

"Is it doing as okay as you?”

Biting back an irritable growl, he narrowed his eyes. "What exactly is that supposed to mean?“

It was Fenton’s turn to sigh as he ran a hand through his hair. "I know Lil Bulb doesn’t act like the other kids, but that’s probably because it was never under the impression it was one. But you gave it a _child’s _android body. You tuck it in at night, you defend its identity, you call it your child, and it looks like a biological child of yours might. For all intents and purposes, Bulb is a child.”

Lowering his hand, he smiled softly up at Gyro. "But more importantly, Bulb is _your child_. You didn’t have to do any of this for it, but you did, and you both look like you’re happier because of it. I just think… Maybe you both could also benefit from treating it less like another intern, or like the robot it used to be, and treating it more like the kid it is every once in a while.“

He looked toward the bed with is piles of rumpled blankets, then to the loveseat with its tidy little pillow and tucked in blanket, decorated in multi-colored robots. "For what it’s worth, I do think you’re doing a good job.”

Gyro followed his gaze, letting it settle on the blanket he picked out for Bulb a few months back. The defensive expression on his face eased up, and the tension seeped out of his stance. Thinking on Fenton’s words for a moment, he sighed, gently and quietly. "…I’ll look over my personal budget tonight and see what I can do.“

Looking back to Gyro, Fenton reached up and rested a hand on his arm, smile still there. "Whatever you do, I’m sure it’ll appreciate it. Just like I know it appreciates everything you’ve already done for it.”

Instead of shaking him off, like Fenton thought he might, Gyro smiled fondly. His sights still on the folded blanket. "I hope so.“


End file.
